Virat Kohli Named In Wisden's Cricketers Of The Decade List

Reaching another amazing milestone by the end of this calendar year, Indian skipper Virat Kohli has been named as one of the five Wisden’s Cricketers of the Decade. Moreover, he is the only cricketer from India to be shortlisted. Besides Kohli, the other four cricketers are - Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Ellyse Perry.

"Since the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar and the gradual waning of MS Dhoni, no cricketer in the world has operated under such daily pressure as Kohli." | @the_topspinhttps://t.co/CrGnxWrFU0

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 25, 2019

“His genius has been to rise, time and again, to the challenge. Between the end of the England tour in 2014 and the second Test against Bangladesh at Kolkata in November, Kohli averaged 63, with 21 hundreds and 13 fifties,” said Wisden about Kohli. “It left him with a unique set of statistics - the only batsman to average at least 50 in all three international formats. Even Steve Smith was moved to remark recently that there is no one quite like him.” “In many ways, there isn't. Since the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar and the gradual waning of MS Dhoni, no cricketer in the world has operated under such daily pressure as Kohli,” it added. On Tuesday, ICC posted some astonishing stats about Kohli which showed his dominance in world cricket over this decade. “Virat Kohli this decade: 5,775 more international runs than anyone else, 22 more international hundreds than anyone else,” posted the ICC on its official Twitter handle.

Virat Kohli this decade: 🏏 5,775 more international runs than anyone else 🤯 🏏 22 more international hundreds than anyone else 😮 pic.twitter.com/u1ZA97ARRn

— ICC (@ICC) December 24, 2019

In 2019, Kohli scored 2,370 across formats at an average of 64.05. It was the fourth consecutive time that the 31-year-old aggregated 2000-plus runs in a calendar year. The Indian skipper has already been named as the captain of Wisden’s Test team of the decade. The Indian run-machine also finds a spot in the Wisden ODI team of the decade alongside MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and others.